laurenkst

You've made a very good decision and frankly your RN may get your foot in the door and give you access to information of jobs available for your BS in Psychology. Also: your new perspective may give you a two way view. You will now know what you are ...

Michael: I am a nurse educator at a Psych Hospital in Delaware--A State Facility. Just a word of caution: please make your prior tx hx clear before they hire you. Most State Psychiatric Facilities do a Securit...

I can't for any reason understand why the L&D was used to house a schizophrenic patient. I used to work in a NICU and the L&D was right beside the unit. I don't know whether the patient was having delusions or hallucinations. But if she's alr...

I just received an e-mail from the NIMH website on Medications. Please look into the medication information @http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/medicate.cfm. The information is down to earth and relatively easy to understand. It might help you develop ...

Martha: I had 27 years of nursing as a LPN on such specialties as Med/Surg--54 patients, Neurosurgery--32 patients, CICU-10 when full, Neonatal Intensive Care--24 patients, PICU-7 patients and then I became an RN,BSN in 1991, and worked 3 nursing...

Caroline: I have been in nursing for 40 years--this year. The last 7 have been in the field of Psychiatric Nursing. There are many qualities that the nurses I work with possess. Two of the most important in forming good staff/patient rela...

Sorry, an addendum to my note. I reread your questions: 1. Medication Passes are different at different prisons. It usually depends on how tight the security needs to be. This usually depends on whether the prisoners are violent offende...

Please check the notes on the 3rd page--BPD. There is alot of good advice from nursing experiences in that listing.

Relax a little, but keep your guard up. Prisoners need good nursing care too. Sometimes they get better care than the general population. I have seen inmates get therapies for illnesses that you and I would have trouble getting or affording. ...

Florence Nightingale accomplished alot in spite of her problems in a time that did not support women or acknowledge their revolutionary concepts. On another note: it certainly would explain alot of her other questionable behaviors. Although, I don't ...

Look into a therapy called DBT--Dialectical Behavior Therapy. It has been in use for approximately 10-15 years and has a very good reputation for handling this Axis II disorder. I currently work in a State Psychiatric Hospital where we are just start...

Sounds like you are dealing with a patient with a Borderline Personality Disorder. There is a reasonably new Therapy called DBT-Dialectical Behavior Therapy where all blame is removed and the patient has limits set by each individual as to what behav...

Honey: Patient's should not have NGT's in for longer than 7-14 days. It can erode through the septum. If you place a G-Tube in the patient it can be removed at a later date when the patient feels better and is compliant with her medications and e...

Sounds like this patient is not being medicated properly. Although Zyprexa is now being used for anxiety that is associated with depression, it sounds more like your patient has an associated panic disorder. Not trying to be a doctor, but Paxil might...

We have two types of nursing assistants at the facility that I now am a Nurse Educator/Trainer. There are Certified Nursing Assistants that now work at a Psychiatric Hospital and take care of mentally ill patients with medical problems that they have...

Hi Michael: I'm a nurse educator in a State Psychiatriatric Facility. We have a Geriatric Facility where most of our CNA's work. There are other CNA's who have worked on the Geriatric units who are positioned throughout the hospital, but a major...

Agree with one of your responders, Risperdal--as well as all other antipsychotics--can cause weight gain and can also trigger Diabetes Mellitus with the weight gain in patients. So please keep an eye out for this--LCK

Yes it is possible for a nurse with a mental illness to become a nurse. You do need to be under treatment and compliant with your program. Why shouldn't you. Who could understand the psych patient better? You could probably straighten out a few thing...

I do not understand how a physician could diagnose a child of two as bipolar and why prescribe Risperdal which is one of the Novel Antipsychotics. I'm sorry this must be too early. With such experimental off the label usage the child must be at risk....

The patient was not on a Psych Unit. If he had been he would have had a contraband search on admission. All belongings that he could have used to harm himself or others would have been confiscated. Did anyone know he was suicidal? Most patients do no...

psychiatry can be a very rewarding field. it has it's ups and downs but best all you really feel needed. the problems with financing for medical problems makes staffing--in all areas of nursing now--a major issue. keeping floors staffed enough to be...

why in the world did you come into nursing? did you have blinders on when you registered to become a nurse? nursing is nursing, sometimes it requires handling body fluids. i don't care what field you work in you will come in contact with fluids somew...

It depends upon what you call stealing. An occasional aspirin, ibuprofen or tylenol for a headache or back pain should be acceptable--there should be a floor supply anything stronger than that is not. Completing your shift is a necessity.